SJ courthouse opening delayed after fire inspection

STOCKTON — A grand opening for the county’s newest courthouse has been delayed indefinitely after poor marks from the Office of the State Fire Marshal this week.

The fire marshal recently conducted an inspection of the new 13-story building located at Hunter Square in downtown Stockton and determined that exits from the courtrooms were not up to standards.

“One of the requirements made by the fire marshal is that there has to be a one-hour fire-rated wall in the egresses from the courtrooms,” Judge Robin Appel said Wednesday.

Appel serves as chairwoman of the court’s facilities committee and said courthouse plans have been submitted and approved by the fire marshal’s office several times since 2015. However, she noted those approvals were made subject to a field inspection.

“Although plans were approved several times, the fire marshal said ‘no’ this time,” Appel said. “They want the hallways changed.”

According to the Office of the State Fire Marshal, entryway corridors must be able to withstand a fire for at least one hour, giving occupants enough time to evacuate, as well as giving first responders time to get everyone out.

Appel said contractors and the facilities committee have been working closely with the fire marshal’s office throughout the entire construction process, and to have the project delayed is a blow to the progress.

“It means this is a significant delay, as well as a significant increased cost, even though we don’t know at this point what the cost will be,” she said. “We also don’t know the time frame. This is devastating to the court, and to the whole project because this was totally unexpected.”

Construction on the 306,000-square-foot building, estimated at nearly $273 million, was to be completed this fall. Appel said the court had planned to open the new building in December. A new opening date has not been determined.

County officials have been planning since at least 2007 to replace the original courthouse, which had been built in the 1960s and is deemed by court officials as outdated, crowded and unsafe.

The new courthouse was 80 percent complete when the fire marshal inspected the corridors, Appel said.

Steve Guarino, chief of Fire and Life Safety for the fire marshal, said the courthouse has had design issues that all construction projects face but that contractors have worked diligently to rectify them.

He said he expects the corridor issue to be resolved within the next few days.

“There are design issues with the corridors, but a solution is right around the corner,” he said.

— Contact reporter Wes Bowers at (209) 546-8258 or wbowers@recordnet.com. Follow him at recordnet.com/bowersblog and on Twitter @WBowersTSR.

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